The amount of online shopping transactions rose sharply in South Korea in January this year from a year earlier, with purchases made using mobile gadgets rising faster than transactions carried out on personal computers, government data showed Tuesday.

The proportion of online transactions to the total retail purchases, not counting the service sector, jumped to 18.3 percent from 15.4 percent during the same time span.

(Yonhap)

Mobile purchases, meanwhile, soared 30.4 percent to 3.99 trillion won in January from 3.06 trillion won a year earlier, accounting for 11 percent of total retail transactions, up from 8.6 percent the previous year.

The amount of purchases made through personal computers posted a 9.1 percent increase to 2.68 trillion won from 2.46 trillion won during the same period.

The dramatic rise in mobile transactions is attributed to the growing number of single-person households, whose members tend to place greater importance on convenience and prefer shopping for goods online.